Critical Thinking Bell Ringers

Get your students thinking. We teach in a product-driven age of Standards, behavioral objectives, and progress monitoring. As we head back to school, why not achieve some sort of balance with a 10-minute process-driven bell ringer twice per week? Just display this warm-up activity while taking roll and listen to the happy sounds of brains engaging with some of the greatest brains of human history: from Plato to Shakespeare to Franklin to Rowling.

A brief literary quotation to drive the conversation; a specific directive for observation; a guide to interpretation; a prompt to application in the reading, writing, listening, or speaking context; and a revision task to think out of the box or from a different point of view. Wrap things up in 10 minutes, even though often you’ll hear the “We’re not dones.” Leave them thinking; yes, they are not done.

As much as we try to embed critical thinking, depth of knowledge, Costa’s levels of thinking, or Bloom’s taxonomy into our daily lessons, a specific allocation of time and a concise curricular resource moves us from well-intentioned to committed implementation. If we put it in our planners and don’t have to re-invent the wheel, we’ll get it done. Plus, your students will pester you. They like having their brains stretched. Here’s a sample of a Critical Thinking Bell Ringer that my students love to discuss:

Literary Quotation

“I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.”

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

Definition/Explanation/Reflection: Good friendships take time and effort.

Observation: What do you see? What do you feel? What seem to be the key words?

Interpretation: How would you put this into your own words? What does this mean? What doesn’t this mean? What does this suggest? Why does the author say this?

Application: How can this be used? How could this thought affect something else? What conclusions can be drawn from this? Do you agree with this? How does this apply to you?

Revision: How else could this have been written? Revise this to reflect your point of view or ideas. Create something new to say about this subject.

Student Response:

Wouldn’t it be great to try out four complete Critical Thinking Opener Toolkit lessons?

Get the Critical Thinking Openers Toolkit FREE Resource:

To purchase the Critical Thinking Openers Toolkit with a full year of 64 bell ringers, visit our product page at Pennington Publishing.

“Marvelous tool in helping me to provoke more critical thinking in my students.”